-Gear binding: This is, for now, the biggest problem. Friction caused mainly by the two vertical gears will sometimes prevent the entire mechanism from running smoothly. We will need to make the gears less resistant - for example, we can wrap the teeth with paper to eliminate the problem that exists because of the grooves in the K'Nex pieces. We need to experiment with this.
-Incorrect sizing: The box size was incorrect at a few places, making it uncompliant with the size constraints. However, because the mechanism was small enough, we simply cut the box down to size afterwards. This was easily fixed.
-Wheels colliding with house: Again, we needed to resize the plates by trimming them down. This problem was also easily fixed by trimming both the wheels and the house; both now work properly. However, because the plates became very small, we needed to adjust our design to accommodate the figures. We decided to reduce the number of humans/superheroes from 4 to 2, and instead have two figures "trapped" in the fire and calling out for help. This change is reflected in the final SolidWorks assembly.
-The Crankshaft: This was a difficult problem, but is now solved. Because the crankshaft was at first built in two pieces, the top piece tended to fall through the hole and not work. After much experimentation, we decided to compromise by turning the shaft into one solid pole; while this doesn't give us the exact desired motion, it does allow us to raise and drop the crankshaft flawlessly.
-Bent Box: The bottom of the box seems to be slightly warped. We can attempt to remedy this by inserting another piece of cardboard on the bottom to level out the structure, and the warp will likely be lessened when we install the corner supports.
With only a few pieces left in the physical model to complete, the project is nearing its end. We hope to give a worthy presentation and demo next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment